Equestrian Dawn: Tiberium is Magic

Not A Sunny Disposition

I noticed that I am really slow with updates. From now on, I’m gonna try to pick up the pace a bit. No action but some plot development here.

The humvee column that was packed with Royal Guards, was zipping through the countryside on a dirt road, desperately trying to reach Ponyville. Smoke could already be seen in the direction of the small town. A very anxious and worried Captain of the Guard was riding in the passenger seat of the lead humvee, courtesy of Psycho Twitch’s erratic driving.

Shining Armor had every right to be worried sick for his sister. Once he heard about the attack on Ponyville, images of Celestia’s singed, torn and blood-splattered body entered his thoughts, but this time Celestia’s image was replaced with Twilight’s.

No.

He would not let that happen again.

It was one thing seeing the sun princess like that…but seeing the little sister that he loved dearly in that condition? His heart would obliterate itself.

He stared out the passenger door’s window and spotted a hill that had a perfect, bird’s eye view of Ponyville below. That’s when he noticed a news team situated at the top of the hill. The reporter had his back to Ponyville, and the camera was trained on him. A magically levitated microphone was hovering near his mouth as he spoke.

“Wow! The Equestrian news media is really fast!” Shining Armor thought as he watched the news crew for a split second before Psycho yanked the steer wheel hard to make a sharp left turn.

After this action, the hill disappeared from Shining Armor’s view as he retracted his neck to face front once again and was greeted by much different scenery.

Right in front of him was Ponyville.

“No…,” the guard captain couldn’t help but whisper.

“Damn man…the hay happened here?” Skinny Dipper commented, a profound expression on his face as he surveyed the destruction of Ponyville.

Homes, businesses, and even town hall.

All of it burning.

Shining Armor had to rub his eyes with a hoof to make sure he wasn’t imagining this. He observed in shock as weather pegasi began to soak out fires with rainclouds and water buckets. Unicorn ponies were picking up wounded victims with their magic and gliding them to Ponyville’s only hospital.

“Shit man! That’s gruesome!” Psycho Twitch pointed out, squinting over the steering wheel and watching local earthponies drag away the dead bodies of Ponyvillians and Nod soldiers alike.

Trails of blood painted the concrete and stone roads, marking where bodies had already been hauled off. The smoke from the fires filled the air above the small town and burning vehicles remained idle in the street.

It was at this point that Shining Armor decided to step out.

“Stop the humvee,” he ordered Twitch in an emotionless, robotic tone.

The red pegasus was too far into shock to construct a thought to disobey. As he hit the brakes, Captain Sparkle exited the humvee, slamming the door behind with a hoof. He slowly swiveled his head back and forth to soak in the carnage.

Cries for help, screams of panic, and shouts of urgent orders, mixed with the crackling of the flames emanating from various buildings. As Shining Armor slowly took his first step, a metal clinging could be heard from underneath him.

He looked down and felt the bottom of his front hooves becoming hot. He removed them and took a peek at what he stepped on.

Shell casings.

The white stallion gazed around the ground near him and noticed hundreds, if not thousands of brass shell casings of various sizes littered on the streets and mixing with the blood and bodies of ponies.

The initial shock overcame his being so thoroughly that his mind just went blank as he slowly stepped forward, towards the town square. His eyes had the working of a ‘thousand yard stare.’ As he walked past the rescue teams, some ponies recognized who he was and momentarily paused their tasks as they stared at him in awe. Soon thereafter, they snapped out of their gazes and focused at their tasks at hoof.

When Shining Armor reached the end of the square, he recognized a certain purple unicorn embracing two other ponies with tears streaking down her eyes. She was caressing a pink earthpony and a light blue pegasus and repeating the phrase I’m sorry I’m sorry as she did so.

“Twily…”

Apparently, his sister had heard his whisper and jerked her head around in his direction. Her eyes grew wide as she quickly got up and galloped towards her kin, tears still pouring down her face.

A tearfilled and angry-looking orange earthpony began attempting to pick up the pink earthpony by offering a hoof. The rainbow-maned pegasus got herself on all fours as all five of the mares in the group watched their friend approach her tan-covered big brother.

“Brother!” she called out, her voice hoarse from sobbing. There were still tears streaming down her cheeks.

“Twily!” he answered as the purple pony collided with him, nearly tackling him in a passionate hug.

“When I heard about the attack, I thought something may have happened to you. Are you alright?” he asked with urgent concern.

“Yes, I’m okay. Well, thanks to Rainbow and Pinkie anyways. Without them we would have been doomed,” Twilight said as she turned back to flash a heartfelt smile at her friends.

Rainbow and Pinkie looked at each other with confusion regarding their friend’s sudden change of heart. They both just shrugged and assumed that the praise was a subtle way for Twilight to apologize for her behavior earlier. They were distracted however, by the guilt that still swallowed their consciences.

“And…what are you wearing? And what are those contraptions? Are they steam or magic-powered?” her voice squeaked slightly as she looked at the machines quizzically, eyebrow cocked.

The guard captain smiled.

No matter what the situation called for, his little sister always wanted an answer for everything. It was just part of her studious and analytical personality…

And her sarcasm…gotta love her sarcasm.

“It’s long story and even I don’t know everything yet, but I promise to tell you later. I just wanted to make sure you were okay before I head north,” the white unicorn explained.

“You’re going north? Why?”

“Because one of our forts is under attack and General Shepherd is cut off at the moment. I’m going in with a battalion of Royal Guards to relieve him,”

Twilight immediately began to worry about her BBBFF. She had just witnessed the terror of combat, and the thought of her brother entering it caused her gut to tighten.

“Hopefully there, we can find out who is committed these attacks. I still can’t believe they hit the castle as well,”

“WHAT!? Is Princess Celestia ok?” her eyes shot open again, this day was just getting crazier and crazier by the second.

She didn’t know if her heart or her brain can take this kind of punishment.

It wasn’t even noon yet.

“Lord Cozmar thought it would be a good idea to go suicide bomber on us by strapping a bomb to his chest, and blowing himself up in the name of some god his sadistic imagination created,” he replied, raising his voice at sadistic.

“The princess received moderate burns and shrapnel wounds. She broke a foreleg and several ribs as well. That’s as far as I know. But I swear, I’m gonna get to the bottom of this and make whoever’s responsible pay for their deeds,”

Shortly afterward, he regretted telling his sister that. All it did was freak her out even more. After several minutes of attempted to calm her down, he eventually succeeded. After she calmed herself, Twilight admitted that she was a big fan of Lord Cozmar's scientific accomplishments and was disappointed that he of all ponies would commit such an act of evil.

Shining Armor nodded.

"Wow, how weird that must be to hear about your idol trying to kill your mentor. I'm glad Twily wasn't there when it went down. It could have affected her a lot worse,"

As he prepared to leave, he hugged his little sister one last time, and gave her a smirk as he opened the door to the humvee.

“Don’t worry. I’ll be back soon,” he said as he entered the vehicle.

“You better be. Cause if you don’t, then I’m going to lecture you for hours on the subject of punctuality!” Twilight answered with a smirk of her own.

She could’ve sworn that she saw her brother shiver a little at the threat after she spoke.

As Twilight watched with fascination of the advanced vehicles speeding down the road, moving north, she turned around to face her friends. The violet eyes that were no longer filled with tears, were analyzing her friends.

They were obviously far from okay. All of them were petrified by today’s events, and may have trouble coping with them.

Especially Pinkie and Dash. And of course Fluttershy may need a little more comforting than the others as well. They took the brunt of the trauma. But maybe something could still be done about this.

Maybe…the power of friendship was still worth something.

Standing out on a hill overlooking Ponyville was a pro-Nod propaganda news team reporting the attack on Ponyville. A yellow unicorn pony was facing the camera, with his back to the still-burning village. He was wearing a tan boonie hat and was levitating a microphone with his magic. Royal guard-filled humvees rolled into Ponyville behind the reporter, the cameramare making sure to film it.

“War torn Ponyville. Once a happy farming town for peace-loving peasants, today…a slaughterhouse. Yet one more casualty in the insane Royal assault against ponykind. Yet in other in a series of villages wiped off the earth by the Royal Equestrian Army and its misguided leader: General Spark Shepherd,”

The scene of flames erupting from the town with Equestrian humvees rolling into the town at the same time, seemed to give the illusion that the reporter’s words were true.

“And what crime did Ponyville commit to warrant such carnage? Sources indicate that Royal terrorists were convinced that this simple hamlet was involved in the manufacturing and shipping of Tiberium. When will this madness end? Only when General Shepherd and his vision of one world order is stopped.

This is Grey Brunette, Ponyville,”

“…K…Ka…KA!”

“Sister! Are you out of your mind?! Lie back down! You must rest!”

Princess Celestia’s form dropped back onto the hospital out of exhaustion and pain, rather than obedience. Her blue sister galloped to her bedside and placed a hoof on Celestia’s snout. The night princess managed to chuckle at Celestia’s stubbornness.

“Even when incapacitated, she shows her selflessness,” Luna thought, keeping a loving smile on her face and not really knowing what she meant by that.

“Lulu…,”

“Yes. We’re here,” the younger alicorn replied, resisting the urge to twitch at the sound of Celestia’s old nickname for her when they were younger.

Princess Luna began to pet Celestia’s snout, stroking it gently.

“Y-you need to contact our-allies for me,” Celestia said bluntly as Luna tilted her head to gaze at the ceiling, focusing in on nothing in particular.

“We have allies?” the blue alicorn asked, dropping her neck back down to meet Celestia’s gaze and spread her wings in interest.

“…Yes. The Republic of Ka-Kar-Karalia. A-and Yu-Yuktobania,” Celestia huffed out with great difficulty, a burning sensation flaring up in her ribcage.

Luna’s mouth dropped open as she recognized one of the names.

“Karalia?! Those rebel swine?!”

“P-please little sister. That civil war was o-over a thousand years a-ago. Times have changed,”

“We can’t believe our sister let them secede!” Luna yelled stamping a hoof in a pouty protest.

“Please Luna! After what we put them ttt-hhhrough, I felt that they’ve ee-earned their indep-pendence!”  Celestia yelled through her pain.

Luna saw her sister in pain and sighed. This was not the time for bickering. They needed to work together the best they could to get through this. United they stand, divided they fall. The princess of the night realized this and calmed her anger as she bowed in shame.

“Are you sure we can trust them?” Luna inquired, raising an eyebrow.

“Because if I remember correctly, those Karalians were shifty and corrupt,”

“Yes of co-course we can rely on them. Chancellor Split Talker is a personal friend of mine,” Celestia exhaled forcefully as she strained to finish that sentence without having to pause.

“Very well sister. We will talk to them. But only for you,” Luna gave a defeated smile.

“I-I know that you ha-hated the K-Karalians for what they d-did, but that is in the distant past my little pony. Also, we could u-use some more of their advanced techn-ology as well,”

Celestia smiled as happily as she could at the slightly greedy remark.

She could feel the painkiller spell the unicorn nurse placed on her starting to wear off.

“You should really get to sleep,” Luna said with concern.

“I know,” Celestia replied in a voice that was calm with a hint of lackadaisical.

Luna made her way to the door and opened it with her magic.

“I know you can do thissss by yourself. I trust in you. Don’t let the sssstress get to you Lulu,”

The blue alicorn smiled with confidence as she closed the door behind her, leaving her sun goddess sister to her nap.

Afterthought

From now on I’m going to cut my chapters a little shorter so they don’t take so long. Chapter Seven is almost complete. Expect it soon.